Merry Christmas Everyone!

Sorry I've been gone for so long, been having some health issues, coupled with moving yet again and now looking for a home to buy.

T-10 days

We got the rv buttoned up and it's ready for its long winter sleep, and are now in a residential hotel.  Living in the RV was very enjoyable even with the teeny living space.  Now that I have access to fast internet, here's the long awaited pictures of our wee trailer.  I adored living in it, and if it wasn't for having 3 storage units filled with furniture, books, pictures, dishes and mementos that we can't bear to part with we'd be happy to live in one full time.  I never really understood the allure before, but I sure do now.  Living as a turtle does, carrying one's house along on life's journey is a wonderful thing indeed.

We fly out of here for Hawaii on the 29th, for 2 days in the sun. Then on October 1st, we zoom into the unknown world of tackling a foreign country, one where we don't speak the language!  We have a phrase book on my phone, and have a few well practiced phrases.  Please, thank you, yes, so sorry, hello, good day and good bye.  We can order brown tea, " chiro ocha kudasai", so if I do indeed get brave enough to eat out we have my allergy cards printed out and ready to go.  While traveling on trains and subways holds no fears for me, the buses scare me to pieces.  When we were their before I would just write the kanji for the street or town on my hand and used that to navigate, but buses seem trickier one must know the bus route and when to transfer....sigh   But hopefully we will quickly get that sorted as we need to ride a bus from our house into Kyoto.  Luckily the Japanese are very organized with their mass transit and the buses, trains and subways all share the same station, so moving between transit modes is easy.

  There seems to be so much to do between now and then, and yet not much left to do.  As the days creep closer to T-day, [travel day] I'm beginning to feel a mite anxious and worried about the entire trip.

After spending hours trying out blog names for our travel blog, all the "good" ones were taken.  But then just as I was getting tired of that game an idea popped into my head and it wasn't taken!  w00t!

Here is our new blog addy, it is still blank at this time, I need to sit down and write the first post.

http://wanderingsourdoughs.blogspot.com/

Ok, and now we come to the tricky part of my post.  I'd love for y'all to travel Japan with us, and would love hearing your comments, however....  Anyone who reads my blog knows I'm closeted and don't see that changing anytime soon.  We are giving the blog addy to the kids and that's where my worry begins.  If they follow the commenters back they will find out who I am, and truly am not wanting to deal with that.  I'll leave anonymous commenting available, and thats really the only way I can see how to keep my secret identity safe and allow my friends here to comment.

Stolen!

Read this over at ravager619.wordpress.com, who stole it from Anne Marie, who stole it from......

1. ARE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?  Well, sorta kinda?  If we had of had a daughter, TH wanted her middle name to be Renee, but a daughter wasn't in our cards, thankfully.  When I changed my name I decided to pick Renee to be my middle name.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?   Last week, when 2nd son told us he didn't want us to move, and wanted us to buy the property down the street from him so we could be close.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Yeah, its spiky and sloppy and totally me.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Pastrami!

5. DO YOU HAVE ANY KIDS? Yep, 4.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS?  Well why wouldn't I be?  We like to do the same things!

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM?  It's hard for me to not be sarcastic.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?   Yep!

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?   F**k NO!

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?  Before the celiac diagnosis Captain Crunch.  Yes really!  I no longer eat cereal, unless rice krispie treats count?

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?  No.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU’RE STRONG?  Physically? No.  Emotionally, hellz yeah.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?   Strawberry, but it has to be actually made with strawberries.

4. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?  It depends, sometimes it's their shoes, for others it could be their hair, or face or their demeanor.

5. RED OR PINK?   I'd rather not wear either, but if need be, red.

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF?  My wrong gender.

17. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING RIGHT NOW?   Black with teal socks.

18. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?  Black bean and corn salad, bbq ribs and potatoes.

19. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?   I'm not at the moment, as TH is reading.

20. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?  Orange

21. FAVORITE SMELL?  Babies!

22. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO?  TH

23. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH?  NFL

24. HAIR COLOR THAT’S REAL?  My hair started going grey at 23, and I've been coloring it ever since.  I have zero idea what color it is under the dye.

25. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?  No.

26. FAVORITE FOOD?  Toast!

27. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?  Never EVER scary movies!  EVER!!!

28. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?  Star Trek Beyond.  And loved every single moment!

29. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?  Black

30. SUMMER OR WINTER?  Summer!!!

31. HUGS OR KISSES?  Both!

32. FAVORITE SWEET FOOD?  Carmel popcorn!!!

33. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?  "Assault with a Deadly Lie: A Nick Hoffman Novel of Suspense"  by Lev Raphael


34. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?  Mouse pad??

35. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST?  A few episodes of Darkwing Duck

36. FAVORITE SOUND?  Its a toss up between wind ruffling leaves with birds singing.....or a finely tuned muscle car.

37. ROLLING STONES or BEATLES?  Beatles!!! 

38. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE TRAVELED?  Antigua

39. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?  Connecting with children, but especially babies.

40. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?  Indianapolis Indiana

Indecision

This summer has been fantastic!  We are about 1/2 mile from one of our sons.  We live between his work and his home, and he has dropped by quite often on his way home from work!!!  We see the grand son, and have watched him many times.  The son with the evil being wife has come around and we go over and visit with him and girls while she's at work.  And the other Alaskan son has had us over for dinner and have gone camping with TH andwe have just hung out together.

I'm having so much fun the idea of moving back to Arizona has lost its shine. 

However,  it was 39 this morning, fall is here and winter wont be far behind.

All my fabulous friends live in Arizona. 

Volunteering at the library has really made me feel useful again, and every day is a delight to go to "work".

It gets DARK in the winter.  Think winter twilight for the day "light".  If it's a clear day, there will often be an hour of sunny sunshine.  But by December and January, that is only a memory...

Sigh. 

TH has left it up to me if we move or stay.  The only thing he has to say on the subject is how much healthier I am in Arizona.

Damn, damn, damn.  I nver do get the easy decisions to make, do I?

YIPPEEEE!!!!

Our neighbor came home from her trip, and while deadheading her flowers by her driveway she

           FOUND OUR KEYS!!!!

And then suddenly like a light bulb turning on, we remembered how our keys came to be at the end of the driveway.  There is an absolutely adorable Akita puppy just a few RV's past us, and she was being walked and every time we see her we dart over like rabid fans to pat and coo over her... 

Whew!  And that will teach us to keep our wits about us when we are being total fan boys of this puppy.

Where is Sherlock Holmes when we need him?

Two days ago, we took a late night run into town to rent some videos and pick up a few odds and ends at the grocery.  Have you seen "Bridge of Spies"?  If not, I highly recommend it.

TH plucked the keys to the RV trailer from my hand and opened the door, letting me in, and then going back to the truck to carry in the odds and ends.  We had a snack and and settled down to watch video.  Next morning we get up, eat breakfast, take our showers and are ready to start the day of appointments and work on Sister's home.
 
EXCEPT for the fact the keys to the truck AND the rv are missing.  Our rv is all of 27 feet long with one pop out, not a lot of space to loose two sets of keys!  Feeling confident that we will have them soon, we start to look, and as the time passes we become more frantic, tearing thru our belongings and looking in the most obscure and silly places.  Like where?  Try the microwave....the freezer, and the washer. 

Then we began to become more methodical and went room by room, going thru every nook, every cranny every box, bin and drawer.  Youngest came over, and helped looked.  We tore the truck apart looking. 

Those keys have yet to turn up!  And we have zero idea where they disappeared to.  The truck had to be towed to the dealer to get re-keyed, and luckily we had copies of the rv keys. 

But still the mystery is where those keys got off to!

Damn, its been a month!?

Hey, so I just realized yesterday that it had been a month since I last blogged.  We have been busier than a male escort at the GOP convention...

TH is slowly but surely digging through his sister's house.   It has been an emotional journey for him, that often leaves him depressed and guilt ridden, only to have to get up and begin again each day.  Every nook and cranny of her house was filled to the brim, add to this tsunami of belongs an ocean of paperwork to sift through.  I've gone over with him a few times, but the inches thick dust sparks an allergy attack that lasts for days, so I've not been much physical help to him.

While he is digging thru the layers of his sister's life, I've been going thru the random boxes of items we have plucked from our storage units.  Trying to pare down our belongings into one storage unit, and we have finally realized that is an unrealistic idea.  So we are just going to straighten them up enough to put the family pieces of furniture we inherited from his sister.

Life in the RV trailer has been surprisingly easy!  Due to its tiny size, 26 feet long, its super easy to keep tidy.  However, just a pair of shoes and a few books and my knitting sitting out make it look as though it's pig pen messy.  There are things I keep moving about trying to find the "perfect" place for them, which for some things doesn't happen.

The internet here is at times dial-up slow, driving me totally crazy!  At the first of the month when I paid our bills, nearly all of which are paperless and web based I had to use my phone "hot spot" killing my allowed 3 gigs.  I'm up at 5:30 am to get this written, TH is asleep or I'd attempt to post a few photos of our trailer.  My phone is in the bedroom.  If I get up again in the middle of the night, I'll post some pics.

I'm sorry I haven't managed to keep up with everyone's blog, but between sifting thru his sister's life and ours and the crappy internet I just don't have the energy.

The bright spot of this entire summer was the fabulous week of taking care of our grandson while he was between day care centers.  And!!!  We have managed to visit with eldest and his two girls, so life on the grandparent front is blooming wonderful.

Boxes!

It's the last day here in this apartment, am totally going to miss this apartment.  After endless days of packing and tossing things out, am nearing the finish line.  Movers are supposed to be here between 1-6 today, and all I have left to pack is the dishes and a bit of loose odds and ends.  Ya know the flotsam and jetsam that seems to fill drawers and cupboards.

Yesterday I put TH on a plane for Provo to spend some time with his lifelong friend to get out of the heat.  TH is an Alaskan thru and thru and the heat is killing him.  We had 120 on Father's Day and hubby came close to heat stroke.

Tonight its a hotel for me, and a very extremely early wake up call, 4am.  I am afraid of driving on the freeway during rush hour and it makes me very nervous.  Because I'm afraid to change lanes at 75 mph, I keep "falling" off the highway.  How does one fall off?  Well, ya know how the outer two lanes are usually tied to the off-ramps?  When one travels the off-ramp lanes, one falls off.  So rush hour starts mighty early here so as to beat the rush am going to leave at 5 am so I'll be thru Phoenix before the rush begins.  My goal is Henderson NV tonight, and Provo tomorrow.  Then we catch a plane to Alaska on Sunday.

I'm thinking about sleeping for a week once we get home!

hate wins, yet again

i just do not understand hatred of a subset of humanity.  hating a single person, yes, there are some individuals who are vile enough to deserve hate, but an entire grouping of humans, no.  as time passes for me, i see less and less reason for humans to have religion.  its a divisive instrument, one that has caused more death, more suffering, than any other single human frailty, even the drive for wealth and power cowers a long distant second.  my only hope is that this will awaken some of the sheep who blindly follow behind a hatemonger, to the realization that death of any person is a crime.  yes, yes i know the earth is overly full with the parasite humanity, but if we can learn to adore our fellow man, embrace science instead of bronze age religions, and free women to choose to have a child or not, our population will drop, until we achieve a manageable number.  

this is why i adore and kneel at the feet of gene roddenberry, he believed that man had the ability to live in a peaceful manner in our future, where all were accepted, and had equal rights.  and to those who claim star trek never had an out lbgt person, its because the studios shut him down back in the '60s, and the sheeple who followed left us out as well.  i have great hope the new series will include lgbt folks. 

we need to stop 'rewarding' bigots, racists, homophobes, misogamist people by inviting them onto 'news shows'.  by allowing them to preach their hate, their belief of their privilege over others, gives credence to their lies.  the new shows would never 'invite' the kkk on to talk about why black teens drop out of school, or muslims to talk about the 'jewish' problem in the middle east.  so why do they feel justified having known hate groups talk about lgbt issues? 

maybe its time for a grass root project where masses of people pledge to inundate the news shows with calls and masses of emails every single time one of the hate mongers is on their shows?  if their phone lines were filled with people awaiting to complain, their inboxes filled with anger that Miss Toni Perkkkins was on again, hellz even if clouds of snail mail starting arriving they might begin to understand that 'inviting' hate groups was a bad thing.

Holy Hanover! Time travels quickly....

Howdy!  Sorry I've been gone awhile again, but whew what a whirl wind life has been this past month and more.

The third Saturday of April TH and I traveled to Indiana to bury his beloved sister and father.  It was so very hard to leave her there.  Unless we travel to visit her grave, no one will visit as she hadn't lived there for nigh on 52 years, and had only visited once in all that time.  So why did she want to be buried there?  Her mamma is there and she wanted to rest next to her for eternity.

The planning for the trip to Japan is steaming along, mutating nearly daily.  There is so much to see and do that we are overwhelmed.  Even though we both want to visit Toyama, the best time isn't in the winter, since we don't downhill ski, so are shelving that until a later date when we can go in the summer and enjoy the hiking.

Good news on the Japanese food front.   There is a Japanese burger chain, Mos Burger that is Japans second largest fast food chain.  They offer two sandwiches for children on their allergy menu, and are both gluten free.  Even better, is they come with a free toy, yippeee!

And... Coco Curry also has many locations that offer one curry that is safe, its served in a re-tort pouch so there is no worry about it being contaminated.   Now the only trick is to order the right one....

We are packing up our apartment and its rather bittersweet as I've lived here for nearly 5 years.   However!!!!!!!!!!  When we come back at the end of December, we will be buying a house!  I have a terrible case of house fever.  I want a house so badly I can't stand it.  We have had things in boxes for over 8 years.  Eight years!  It will be like a prolonged gift giving holiday when we finally unbox things. 

Off I go to work on the big move!

'Tis a Miracle!

For the last several years I was so allergic to egg that getting even a drop of raw egg on my hand felt like I had a burn.  Even washing a pan or plate in an entire sink of water would cause my hands to swell up.  TH would wash anything that egg touched, and mostly made his own eggs.   Putting plastic baggies on my hands allowed me to make him eggs.  Then about 2 months ago TH was in a hurry and needed something quick to eat that he could carry with him.  Fried egg sandwich coming up!  In my hurry I forgot to put the baggies on my hands and made his eggs.  After TH left I realized that I had forgotten my baggies and the egg didn't burn!!  For the next while I made TH eggs without putting baggies on, and never had a twinge of problem with egg burning.  Next up was peeling TH a dozen eggs for a trip out of town, and again no issue!  I got brave and ate a gluten free donut that had eggs as an ingredient, and I was fine!  And so began a spree of eating gluten free english muffins.  Wheee!

After a while I finally got a bit braver and actually ate an egg.  And meh.  I found that I have lost my taste for eggs.  This week I made a homemade egg sausage breakfast muffin.  Sqee!  It was fan-freaking-tastic!  But this opens up an entire world of food, and makes eating breakfast out do-able now.  Every single popular gluten free bread has eggs as a ingredient, making eating out so much easier, and more enjoyable to boot.

With eggs now in my wheelhouse, it was on to chicken.  First chicken I ate?  WINGS!  Oh my golly gosh did I miss buffalo wings.  There is a restaurant near us that has gluten free buffalo wings.  When the order came, I sat and looked at them for quite a while, slightly fearful of trying one.  But then decided to man up and go for it.  Damn were they delicious!  I've eaten wings and roasted chicken a few times now and zero issues!

I've tried cream cheese and some sour cream, with no ill effects.  But as with the eggs, I've lost my taste for them, to the point when grocery shopping today I bought a new container of soy milk and vegan cheese.  However, its nice to know that when I'm out and about I wont have to worry about eating mashed potatoes or butter in things making me ill.  It just might take a while to get used to the flavor of dairy again.  The last time I had anything dairy was 5 years ago. 

I feel so free now both in the grocery store and in restaurants!   From being constrained to a few choices, the entire gambit of gluten free shelves are available to me.   I now have choices in gluten free cookies, crackers, breads and donuts.  I've eaten at restaurants recently and been plagued by severe indecision.  I've gone from having at most two choices to several choices, and it can be overwhelming at times.

Why do I think this miracle occurred?  I was the model patient and never ever cheated with gluten or any of the other foods that were on my no eat list allowing my stomach and gut time to heal.  My life with food is amazing now, no more tears in the grocery store or grief in restaurants.

And Now, Something Completely Different!

With all the hate swirling about with LGBT hate bills, the nasty rhetoric from the political campaigns, its time for something light hearted.  Enjoy!

What Does Music Mean to Me?

 WHAT DOES MUSIC MEAN TO YOU?
I always have a tune pinging around in my head, and quite often my head will bob to my inner tune as I wander through my days.  I catch "ear worm" very easily and have found the only way to cure it is to burn it out by listening to the offending song nonstop until my brain is finally done with it.  Which led me to a week of nonstop listening to this song.



And can now "safely" listen to it without having it ear worm me.

I seem to work differently with music than many folks.  Sex and music for me just doesn't work, it distracts me from the wonderful connection.

When I used acupuncture to help the pain and mobility issues I was having the New Age Music would make me so tense I couldn't get the full benefit from the treatment.  Mr. Nam told me to bring in my earbuds and ipod and listen to something that would relax me.  I fell to sleep and woke up feeling great!  He of course wanted to hear this miracle music and was shocked that this is what relaxed me to slumber.  I had made a two song playlist, with these two songs.





WHAT IS YOUR FIRST MUSIC RELATED MEMORY?
My first memory of music is of classical music, Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn.  And still enjoy classical to this day....along with Polka.  Yes, polka, go ahead and laugh but I adore a fast and happy polka song.

WHAT WAS THE FIRST ALBUM YOU EVER PURCHASED YOURSELF?
Hmm.....I honestly can not remember my first album, but do remember my first 45.  My Uncle used to sit me on his knee and sing me this song, jiggling his knee up and down to his singing.  When I was around 6, I was out and about with Grandma Rose and I saw a 45 with "Songs from Winnie the Pooh" and HAD to have it.  This was around my birthday and I carried my birthday card money EVERYWHERE.  Grandma Rose tried to talk me out of buying this, but I put my foot down and forced the issue.   I have no idea what is even on the other side, or if indeed I ever played the other side...hmmmm

WHAT IS THE LATEST MUSIC YOU PURCHASED?
I tend to binge music shop and buy several at one sitting.  These were the last two pieces of music I bought...




AND


WHAT IS THE VERY LAST SONG YOU LISTENED TO BEFORE WRITING THIS POST? BE HONEST!


Everyone who comments on my blog has been tagged so this thread stops with me.

 

Toyama, Japan

While November is not really the time of year to be hiking around in mountains, we still wanted to visit the Japanese Alps.  Which are the collective mountain ranges of Hida, Kiso and Akaishi.  If only we were down hill skiers!  Maybe there will be some cross country skiing available, as we both enjoy doing that.

A convenient map of Japan.  Toyama is located by the wee 16 on the map, just under a huge hook of land that juts into the sea.  You can see Osaka where we will fly into, Kyoto where we will be based out of for touring about to visit, Kyoto, Nara, Kobe, etc.  This map nicely embiggens.

Map of the Alps. 

While deciding which area to base ourselves in, we came across this video.  If this town is even close to what is described in the video, it will be Amazing!  Enjoy!!

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Dang, that month flew by!  And here in no particular order is what we have been up to.

After intensive thought, and many, many hours on the internet it became clear to us that finding a short term rental in Alaska was impossible.  We could have cobbled together a slew of Airbnb rentals, but the vast majority of them within our price range were all dry cabins.  I have zero interest in spending the summer using out houses and bathing in the kitchen sink.  Extended stay hotels would ring in around $3,000 a month!!!  So, that was out, out, out.

Our solution?  Buy a travel trailer.  I was hoping for a 5th wheel as they are roomier, but are also heavier, which meant a new pick up truck, so no.  We trooped into and out of countless travel trailers, "light" 5th wheel trailers until we were near collapse, and one thing became clear to us.  Travel trailers that had been used and were 4 years old still reeked of formaldehyde and similar chemicals.  Finally, we found a motor home company that sells 'green' trailers!  They don't use dangerous chemicals, and their manufacturing process is clean as well.   We bought one, and had them remove the bunk beds to install a washer/dryer.  We lost some storage space doing so, but now won't have to worry about moldy washers or what washing detergent was used before us.  If this is an enjoyable way to live, we will tow it down and live in it after coming back from our trip.

TH caught the flu, which led to secondary infections, bronchitis, sinus infection and ear infections!  And dash it all, my soaring health lead me to catch it too!   My new immune system became completely overwhelmed and spiked a 103 fever which lead to dehydration and an elevated heart rate.  After a trip to the hospital things for re-hydration and some meds for a sinus infection.

We have decided to cut our trip to Japan down to 6-8 weeks, we are still working deciding which would be best.  Three months we felt might be to overwhelming and the fact that its in the winter months, so many gardens will be closed or will have lost most of their beauty.  New Zealand is still on the table, and would leave around February for around 6 weeks. 

We have so much planning to do for every corner of our lives.  I'm quite tired of planning!

Busy Bees

I knew it had been awhile since my last post, but didn't realize it was that long until I logged in today!  My days are so much fuller now that TH is retired and living with me.  Years of basically living alone, first the years of him working the night shift where I only saw him 3 hours a day at the most, and then the years here alone in Arizona, where I could arrange my time as I wished are long gone.  Now, I'm having trouble finding time to knit more than a row or two at a time, or to read much, or play computer games.  My days are filled with cooking, and doing up the dishes, and being with TH.  We haven't spent this much time together with him healthy since our honeymoon 8 years after we were married.

The planning for the trip has stalled due to me needing to do some intensive thinking about scheduling for the other 2 months.  How long do we need in Tokyo?  Do we want to trek into the mountains to see the snow monkeys soaking in the hot springs (onsen)?  There aren't any trains to Okinawa, so will have to fly there, and then take the few buses that traverse that island.  Unless TH gets mega brave and decides to DRIVE!!!!

 So. Many. Variables. And. Decisions!

We will be doing our travel on trains, buses and a very few taxis, so we need to keep the luggage to a minimum.  What is causing me to trip however is the wet/damp chilly temps, especially if we explore the snowy areas of Japan.  Winter gear is bulky, even the newer stuff.  Factor in the long johns, flannel jammies and sweaters and the suitcases are full to bursting.  Since the Tsunami of 2011 the price of electricity has climbed to the point of many homes and business turning the heat to a low level.  People are now buying hot water bottles to heat their futons again, which is where the flannel jammies come into play.  

Last weekend TH and I traveled to Benson, Arizona and Deming New Mexico to visit two long time friends.  Southern Arizona and New Mexico are rife with amazing geography.  The extreme southern part of both states are fairly economically depressed, with many  business and houses standing empty.

In Deming we saw a machine in Pepper's Grocery that makes tortillas.  TH said they were the best ever, silky and nothing at all like the national brands found in the grocery stores.  The town is also  the proud owners to an amazing museum considering the tiny size of the town, just under 15,000.  In 1977 the town banded together to buy the old Armory building, and have been working to improve it ever since. 

Here are a few of the pictures we took, is it just me, or can you see Clint Eastwood on a horse riding hell for leather across the scrubby landscape?

Shit just got real

Today I paid for our first months rental in Japan. 

"There is no turning back now!", said with both exhilaration and trepidation as Biki worriedly chewed his bottom lip. 

And so the first steps into our grand adventure have been taken.

Would you like to see where we will be?

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/589768?checkin=10%2F03%2F2016&checkout=10%2F31%2F2016&guests=2&s=gL6Y4AUg#reviews

This is outside of Kyoto, only a 15 minute $3.08 bus ride away.  This should be good for TH to ease him into a triple month experience of living completely immersed into a different culture.  Before we had our son and daughter in law to help us with the language barrier, now we are on our own.

Cheeze Gromit!

I never understood the love affair most folks have with cheese.  Cheese was a food item that had very narrow confines in my diet.  I would eat it on pizza, but wasnt a fan of lasagna, as it was to cheesy for me.  Grill cheese sandwiches were acceptable, but putting cheese on meat sandwiches was a big NO!  I ate cheese, onion, lettuce and tomato sandwiches when tomatoes were in season.  Mac n' cheese was ok, as long as there were more noodles to cheese ratio.

About a month ago I began craving a soup I only ate once and wasn't all that big of a fan of, cheese broccoli soup.  I have no idea why this soup became my reason for living.  One day while standing with the fridge door open, hoping lunch inspiration would occur, I remembered the left over broccoli from two nights ago dinner.  I had some Daiya cheddar cheeze* in the fridge for an attempt making a copycat gluten free-dairy free "cheez-its".  But the crackers were put on hold as I decided to make the cheese broccoli soup.

The soup was super delicious!  I made several batches until I ran out of cheeze and broccoli.  And then one day I sauteed mushrooms in v-butter* and melted some cheeze and poured it over a baked potato.  Then I made about one zillion servings of nachos. 

I can't get enough cheeze.  I'm looking at recipes that have cheeze as a major part of their ingredient list and before I'd make a "bah" sound and flip the page, now I stop and linger and decide if this would work well with my cheeze. 

What the hellz is going on?  Hubby thinks that my body knew that cheese was bad for it, not sure if I believe that.  All I know is that a whole new food vista has opened up, and I'm excited to try every tasty bite!

*cheeze is vegan cheese
*v-butter is dairy free Earth Balance butter

Open Sesame!

These past few weeks have been crazy.  Emotionally, physically and time management wise.

I arrived on the 18th of December back in Alaska, Youngest picked me up at the airport.  We some nice hugs and a small chat and then he went back home to bed.  TH worked that night, so it wasn't until 7am I got to see him.  That night we attended the company party.

From then on out our time was divided between going through our belongings and packing packing, packing and dealing with Sisters estate.

To add to things that need to be dealt with, TH retired!  Yup Yup! 

We no longer have a home in Alaska.

TH no longer has a job.

Tomorrow TH arrives from Alaska!

And then starts our new life, which is totally uncharted territory.

Just think, we get to shape our lives as we see fit!  Not to anyone elses standards, but our own. 

This just got interesting!